


Friend, Please

by HeavenlyYours



Category: BLURRYFACE - Twenty One Pilots (Album), Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Also Gee is trans in this fic!!!, Alternate Universe with a castle, F/M, Ghosts, M/M, Paranormal Investigators, Some weird convoluted gay but it's fine, There is some violence that begins when the entire paragraph is in italics so be aware!!, Tyler's Grandpa, catch my sick references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-27 15:13:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19015456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavenlyYours/pseuds/HeavenlyYours
Summary: When Chief Investigator of the Ohio Society for the Paranormal Tyler Joseph agrees to take on a case regarding the spirit haunting the legendary Castle of Gold, the last thing he expects is to discover secrets of his own family's past. But now he's here, and the spirit of the king has...blue hair?





	Friend, Please

**Author's Note:**

> So uh I wrote this for a creative writing class a few years ago - we had to focus on three items and mine were castle, badge, and skeleton.  
> I didn't realize how sad I was back then until I was rereading this and deciding to revamp it to post. So yeah be wary I guess.  
> Enjoy!

The train rumbled along the hilly countryside with its rhythmic chugs. On board the train were many passengers heading to the historic Castle of Gold, which owed its fame to the massive amounts of gold, its location on United States soil, and being the site of a bloody revolution on the ancient kingdom. During the battle, a peasant mob had swarmed the castle and hung the king who lived there. Multitudes of ghost stories had sprung up around this event. Almost all of the passengers in their tank tops, baseball caps, and heavily applied sunscreen were whispering the stories excitedly to one another. All of them except one.

Chief Investigator of the Ohio Society for the Paranormal Tyler Joseph sighed and thumbed through the travel brochure that an overly enthusiastic stewardess had shoved in his hand before getting off of the plane. He was already bored after hours on a plane and getting an equally as tedious ride on the train. Hadn’t becoming the Chief Investigator meant that he wouldn’t have to do this sort of thing anymore? After all, there were only reports of one ghost in the palace, and it hadn’t even tried to kill anyone yet. This was something that one of the rookies could handle. But no, everyone in “the clique” (as they jokingly referred to themselves as) insisted that he do this job. They refused to tell him why, and after a week of putting up with their cryptic answers, he gave in and agreed. Now here he was.

Looking out the window of the train, he adjusted the sleeve of his navy blue suit. He only wore the suit to convince people that he had actual business. He would have been much more comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans, but the last time that he had tried that, he had spent hours trying to convince local authorities that he had official business. So he would just have to deal with the suit until he was done with the supposedly “quick” job. The countryside was gorgeous, though. Not a bad place to spend a couple of days.

The conductor yelled that his stop was coming up. Tyler took out his Chief Investigator badge and pinned it to his suit jacket. By the time that he had finished with fastening the pin, the train had pulled to a stop. Fighting his way through the sea of tourists, he managed to get his bag and get off the train. As he stood in the streets of the town, struggling to get his bearings, he heard a voice say in shock and joy, “Tyler?!”

He whirled around, trying to find the source of the voice, when he felt a set of arms wrap itself around his torso. He looked down to see an old woman with the happiest expression on her face, hugging him like she hadn’t seen him in years, but he had never met her before in his life. “Oh, Tyler, I knew you would come back, I knew that you wouldn’t forget about us!” she babbled excitedly.

At once, Tyler realized what was going on. This old woman must have known his grandfather, whom Tyler had been named after. “Ma’am, you must be thinking of my grandfather. I’ve been told that we look a lot alike.”

“Tyler had children? And then grandchildren?” the woman murmured. Her entire demeanor had entirely changed. “Josh would be so upset.” Tyler wasn’t sure that he had heard her right, but then her face lit up again. “So you’re going to the castle?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tyler nodded. “You knew my grandfather?”

“Oh you bet I did!” the woman smiled in the cute way that only old people can and started hobbling over to a bench. Tyler followed. “We were both good friends fo the king!”

“Grandpa knew the king?” Tyler asked in disbelief. How come he had never heard of this before?

“Of course he did,” the woman humphed. “They were best friends. Inseparable, until the revolution started and Josh made him leave. He didn’t want Tyler to get hurt. Tyler refused at first, but then he changed his mind. He offered to take me, but I didn’t know anyone who didn’t live here, so I just went into hiding.”

The woman’s identity suddenly came to Tyler in a flash. “You’re Debby?”

The woman smiled brightly. “So he  _ did  _ talk about me.”

“He talked about you, but not Josh,” Tyler said, trying to remember all of his grandfather’s stories. “And Josh...was the king?”

Debby nodded. She looked sad. “When you go to the castle, if you  _ do  _ see Josh...tell him that Debby never forgot, okay?”

Despite himself, Tyler felt himself get a little choked up. He nodded. Debby said her goodbyes and left. Tyler took a second to compose himself - Debby had left more of an imprint on him than he would care to admit. After he had gotten his feelings under control, he went and checked into his hotel. Upon entering his room, he changed into pajamas and did a quick Google search to confirm what Debby had said. And it seemed like it was true - there were several pictures of the old king and a man that Tyler was able to identify as a younger version of his grandfather. His head was spinning. What else would he learn on this trip?

…

When he woke up the next morning, there was a message from his boss, Brendon, who was viewed by him and his colleagues as the earthly incarnation of Satan:

_ Tyler, _

_ We pulled some strings down here at the office and got the local authorities to shut down the Castle of Gold from tourists for the day to “do some maintenance”. You’re that maintenance. Get the ghost and get it done. - _ __ Brendon _ _

 

Tyler groaned. Of course. Leave it to Brendon to take an easy job and make it seem like a do-or-die federal mission. But the sooner he got it done, the better. He quickly got dressed and ate a protein bar before leaving to go find the castle. It wasn’t hard. There were what seemed like thousands of signs advertising and pointing towards the castle. It was almost like following the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. Once he arrived at the entrance, he was almost immediately accosted by two security guards.

“The castle is closed today for maintenance,” one of them said roughly. Taking in Tyler’s suit, he quickly added, “Sir.”

Tyler chuckled a little. “That is simply...not correct. You see, I am the maintenance.” He flashed his badge, which was a metallic silver that almost seemed to glow with a light of its own. The guard’s eyes widened, and he immediately began apologizing and backtracking on his previous statements. Tyler waved it off. “Don’t worry about it. How do I get in?”

The guard escorted him inside, explaining how to get around and where the exits were before leaving him to his work. Once alone inside the castle, Tyler took the chance to look around. There wasn’t a lot of gold left, which Tyler though was ironic, but also logical. The peasants who had ransacked the castle believed that the king had drained the funds of the kingdom to create this massive palace, and had taken most of the gold inside to redistribute to the piple. In actuality, it had been a lord with a serious gambling problem who was responsible for the economic downturn that had sparked the revolution. The mistake had been discovered years later, after the king had been discovered years later, after the king had been murdered. In an act of penance, the new leadership had memorialized the palace as a lasting monument to the king and his rule. It had been left in the same dilapidated state as it had been abandoned in after the initial raid. Well, some parts had been reinforced so as not ot cause potential bodily harm to any of the tourists. No museum wants to be liable for injury. So far, there had been no sign of the ghost.

Tyler made his way to the great hall, a massive room that looked capable of holding a couple hundred people. This room was in the best shape, but it was still bad. Stone was falling out of the wall in some places, and the curtains were covered in mothballs. On the wall, there was a painting of the king, which was a common tradition among monarchies. Tyler studied it. The king was young, maybe in his twenties, and he had dark brown and a scruffy beard. He looked happy, and Tyler thought that this was probably done before he was murdered for an incident that wasn’t even his fault.

“Well, I’m glad that someone doesn’t blame me!” A voice laughed. Tyler jumped, which made the voice laugh even more. A figure materialized next to the painting, and it looked exactly like the king in the painting, with one exception. This ghost’s hair was bright blue and its beard was thinner, but nothing else was different. Even the clothes were the same. As the ghost saw Tyler, it turned transparent.

“Tyler?” it asked hesitantly, like it was afraid of the answer. “D-Did you die too?”

Luckily, after the encounter with Debby yesterday, Tyler knew how to handle it. “I’m his grandson, but I’m also named Tyler.”

“Tyler’s grandson Tyler,” the ghost muttered to itself, returning to its previous coloring. “That’s confusing.”

“I know,” Tyler tried to sound soothing. “And you’re Josh? The king?”

“I  _ was _ ,” Josh grumbled, folding his arms. “And then I was murdered, so I don’t know if I’m still a king or not.”

“Well, there aren’t any kings after you, so I would say you’re still a king,” Tyler said. “Also...why do you have blue hair?”

Josh cocked his head to the side. He looked back at the painting and turned back to Tyler with a smile on his face. “Oh, this? I’ve seen a lot of tourists with strange colors on their heads, and since I’m a ghost, I can look like whatever I want! Watch this!” He concentrated for a second, and then his hair turned bubblegum pink.

Tyler blinked. “Whoa.”

Josh’s hair went back to blue. “So why are you here, Tyler-Who-Isn’t-Tyler?”

“I, um,” Tyler felt like telling Josh that he was here to get rid of him would be a bad idea. “I came to tell you...that Debby said to tell you that she never forgot.”

Josh blinked. “You talked to Debby? She’s still alive?”

“Yeah, Debby’s still alive,” Tyler replied.

“That’s very nice of her,” Josh looked down at his feet. He looked up at Tyler with a curious expression. “Is My-Tyler still alive?”

Tyler fidgeted uncomfortably. “He...he died two years ago. Old age.”

Josh looked horrified. He was so taken aback by this response that he stopped levitating for a second and fell halfway down through the floor. Tyler jumped, and Josh raised himself up so that his entire body was once again above the floor. He looked sadder than Tyler thought he was capable of looking. “Tyler’s...dead?” he said to himself bleakly. “But I...I promised him that I would be there for him. I tried to save him, Other-Tyler, I really did!” Ghostly tears were streaking down his cheeks.

“Josh, it wasn’t your fault,” Tyler tried to explain. “He lived a long, full life because of you.” A flash of inspiration came to him. “Do you want to go see him?”

“I want nothing more than that,” Josh grumbled. “But I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m  _ restless _ ,” Josh snapped. “The people who killed me didn’t bury my body, so I can’t go anywhere beyond this world.”

“So if we find your body and bury it, you’ll be able to move on?”

Josh nodded miserably. Now Tyler knew how to get his job done and give Josh some peace. He wasn’t like some of the other spirits that he’d dealt with. He was benign and harmless. And if he had been friends with his grandfather, Tyler owed it to his memory to help Josh find peace.

“Come on Josh,” he heard himself say. “Let’s go find your body.”

Josh brightened, but it wasn’t anything close to how he had been before. They walked through the Castle of Gold, trying to look for Josh’s body. Josh had lots of fascinating stories about the castle and the people who had come through it, but nothing that could help them find Josh’s body. After scouring all the main rooms, they were no closer to finding Josh’s body than they had been at the beginning of the expedition. But it wouldn’t be somewhere where just anyone could find it...Suddenly, the answer came to Tyler. He turned to Josh.

“Are there any rooms that the tourists aren’t allowed into?” he asked. Josh paused, thinking about it.

“Well, no one goes into my room…” he said, then his face went slack. This was typical of a spirit who had a violent death. Sometimes they would relive their final moments. Maybe there was a clue hidden in the vision! Tyler reached out to touch the spirit’s arm, and then he was sucked into a memory:

_ They were in a room that was clearly familiar to Josh, one that seemed to be his personal quarters. It was dimly lit, the only light coming from a swinging lantern that a man with a blurry face was carrying. All of the people that were around him had blurry faces, because they were moving so fast and Josh couldn’t distinguish anything about them. Then they were wrestling him off of his bed, and hitting him, and he was so scared he thought he was going to explode. They dragged him down the stairs, past other screaming nobles, and no matter how hard he tried to fight them, he couldn’t get away. The blurry faces dragged him down into the dungeons, where a hastily constructed set of gallows had been constructed. Josh’s fear skyrocketed, because now he knew what they wanted to do to him. He tried fighting harder, but one of the people hit his head with something hard, which made him see stars. He was still conscious, so he felt them bring him onto the gallows, and force him to stand on a stool, and tighten a noose around his neck. The noose was scratchy, like the hay in the stables where he and Tyler had kissed...Tyler! His eyes flew open and he weakly tried struggling again. He had to find Tyler and he had to say goodbye and he had to say he was sorry for sending him away. He had only been trying to protect him! The people were having none of it, and in the ensuing chaos, someone accidentally kicked the stool out from underneath him. There was a blinding, excruciating pain, and then...nothing. _

Tyler snapped out of the memory with tears in his eyes. Now he knew why Debby had been so surprised that his grandfather had had children, and why Josh had looked so broken following the news that the older Tyler had died. And Josh himself...it was a wonder that he could ever be happy after a murder like that. Speaking of, Tyler turned to see the spirit shaking. He looked like he was about to cry.

“I never said that I was sorry,” he whispered. “He never knew that I was sorry.”

“Josh, I’m sure he knew that you were sorry,” Tyler tried to reassure the former king, but the spirit was having none of it.

“How do you know?!” his voice broke. “You weren’t even born, how can you even  _ possibly fathom  _ whether or not he knew?”

Tyler couldn’t answer that. “Well, we should go find your body.”

Josh nodded, swallowing. He led the way down to the dungeons, his colors paling the closer that they got. By the time they reached the stairwell that Josh recalled so vividly, he looked like an original black and white Mickey Mouse cartoon. He hesitated.

“Other-Tyler,” he said in a scared voice. “I can’t go down there. People...people were never meant to see their dead bodies. Not even...not even freaks like me. I can’t do it, Tyler, I just can’t do it!”

“Hey,” Tyler said firmly. “You are  _ not  _ a freak, even if your spirit was...delayed a little. It’s my job to help people like you get peace. And if you’re referring to you and my grandpa, that doesn’t make you a freak either. You’re a perfectly normal human being. I’ll go down there and get your body. You don’t have to do anything except wait here.”

In a surprising move, Josh gave Tyler a hug. It felt kind of cold, like when you jump into a pool without easing yourself into the cold. Tyler had never been hugged by a ghost before, but he could feel himself easing into the hug like it was where he was supposed to be all along.

“Thank you, Tyler,” Josh said quietly.

“No problem,” Tyler replied. “I’ll be right back.”

As he descended the stairs into the basement, he felt a tense ball growing in his stomach, one that he always felt when he was approaching the location of where a death occurred. With violent deaths, it was way worse. (One reason that he could never visit battle sites.) Since he was personally involved with Josh’s case, it increased the discomfort creeping through his body as well. In other words, it was extremely painful for him to go down those stairs. But he told himself that as a paranormal investigator and Josh’s-Tyler’s grandson, it was his duty to make sure that Josh achieved peace. So he pushed through the dread and forced his feet to move down the stairs. He could see the gallows, and the figure dangling from it like a doll. As he got closer, he could see that there was no flesh left on the figure, and it was only a skeleton, its surface cream and brittle with age. If Tyler hadn’t known better, he would have never been able to identify it as Josh. He approached it. There was a sound like cicadas buzzing in his ears. As he got closer, the buzzing got louder. What felt like an eternity later, he was standing in front of the skeleton, close enough to see the individual teeth in the skull. The stool from Josh’s memory was kicked off to the side, and Tyler grabbed it. Standing on it, he gently loosened the noose and lifted it over the skeleton’s head. It clattered to the ground, and instantly, some of the tension dissipated. A wave of relief washed over Tyler. That meant that some of the wrongs that had happened to this body were being righted. Since it was a murder, there would always be traces of negativity, but at least he could make it so that it would be possible to be in the room. He looked around for something to put the bones in so they could be easily transported and Josh wouldn’t have to see it. There was an old grain sack in the corner of the room. Honestly, Josh deserved better, but he didn’t really have any other options. He carefully placed the bones inside the bag and went back upstairs, where Josh had recovered some of his color. He looked at the bag in Tyler’s hand and asked the unspoken question with his eyes. Tyler nodded. Josh nodded in reply.

“Where were you going to bury it?” he asked. “I can show you where the royals were buried.”

“I had a better spot in mind,” Tyler grinned. He pulled out his phone and dialed a few numbers. “Gee? It’s Tyler. You still owe me a favor. Yeah, I know that you and Frank are out on a date...I am literally an hour and a half away from you, I just need to borrow your car...oh, like you and Frank need an excuse to hang out in a castle...yes, there’s no one else here, I’ll get the guys to let you in and I’ll bring your car back. Deal? Great, thanks.” He hung up.

“Who was that?” Josh asked curiously.

“A girl who owes me for getting her a boyfriend,” Tyler said. “I have a feeling that you’ll like the spot I have in mind.”

….

Hours later, Josh and Tyler were on the road in Gee’s car. Tyler wasn’t telling Josh where he was going, and Josh was too fascinated by the fact that he was in what he called a “self-driving carriage” to mind. He was asking questions about everything, and it made Tyler smile to see this troubled spirit so lively. Soon after that, they arrived in Tyler’s hometown. If Josh had been fascinated by the highway, he was infatuated with the town. He kept shooting half of his body through the roof to look at things, which was a little unsettling to Tyler. By the time that he pulled into the parking lot of the local cemetery, it was late at night and Josh was all out of questions. Tyler grabbed the bag with Josh’s bones from the trunk as well as a shovel and started walking through the cemetery. Josh floated after him. They halted in front of a fairly simple headstone. Josh turned and gave Tyler a questioning look. Tyler smiled and nodded at the headstone. Josh looked at the name on the headstone and gasped.

It was Tyler’s grandfather’s gravesite.

“I figured that you would much prefer to be buried next to Grandpa than anyone else,” Tyler smiled. “Once I realized that you two were a thing, I remembered that he had an extra spot next to his plot that he had reserved. I thought it was weird, since he and Grandma divorced, but now I get it. He was waiting for you. He never stopped.”

There were silent tears streaming down Josh’s face. “I can’t thank you enough…”

“You’re welcome,” Tyler smiled. “Give me a second.” Josh turned away and listened as Tyler scooped a spot out next to his grandfather. He heard the dirt hit the earth, and after a few minutes, he heard Tyler gently place the bones in the hole, and then the dirt was going back on top of them. “Are you ready?”

Josh nodded, a happy grin spreading across his face. He turned back to Tyler, who was waiting with the final scoop of dirt. Tyler gently placed the scoop of dirt on top and smoothed the whole thing out. There was a sudden change in the atmosphere, like a great weight had been lifted off of the universe’s chest. Josh looked up to the heavens in wonder, at a spot that Tyler couldn’t see. His entire form was fading into nothingness.

“Tyler?” he asked, and Tyler knew that he wasn’t talking to him. He reached up, and for the briefest of seconds, Tyler thought that he saw a hand. Then Josh was gone.

….

On his way to give Gee her car back, he found Debby’s house and stopped by to tell her that Josh was at peace. He discovered that she had passed on the previous night in her sleep. Tyler had a sneaking suspicion that she’d been holding out, waiting for Josh, so he wouldn’t go through alone. He felt more at peace now than he ever had before his encounter with Josh. The spirit had changed him, and now he felt prouder than ever to wear his silver badge.

~ The End ~


End file.
